“External transit review needed”

The Times Colonist has an opinion piece with the above title. It starts with an interesting revelation

Buses in the region have the ability to extend green lights at 21 intersections, improving travel for thousands of people. Transponders have been bought, installed and tested.

But almost two years after they were announced, they’re not being used. The City of Victoria has apparently not made the necessary changes and B.C. Transit has not succeeded in pressing for action.

That’s a disservice to travellers and a waste of money. The devices were forecast to reduce fuel costs by more than $1.5 million a year. Those savings have been foregone.

Actually it may or may not be a waste of money. It depends on what happens to the rest of the traffic: it might be argued that while the transit system might save some fuel all those vehicles idling longer at the light waste more.

Of course, it is not money we should be looking at on its own but the “generalized cost” – mostly the value of time but you could also look at externalities like pollution too. Then what matters is not the vehicles but how many people they are carrying. If the bus is empty (for instance going to “Not in Service” as so many seem to) and there are lots of carpools and vanpools then again the City that controls the traffic signals might be right. I doubt it, but it is a consideration.

The opinion piece then gets into the Light Rail proposal – and the need for a vote on it – even though it would be “non-binding”. And thus a complete waste of time.

The linkage it seems to me is tenuous at best. Yes, the lack of signal priority for transit is a concern, but don’t blame BC Transit for that. Blame the municipal politicians. In fact the very same people on the “seven-member Victoria Regional Transit Commission is appointed by the provincial government from the ranks of local councillors and mayors”. As the Colonist notes that has limited powers – but obviously if the mayors and councillors of Victoria thought transit was important, they would issue direction to their engineers. The fact that they haven’t suggests that they care more about the votes – and money – from their local supporters than they do about transit – or even environmental justice. Poor people use transit: rich people drive (a simplification but broadly correct) so current policies that favour car drivers are regressive. Just like sales tax.

The Capital District is not alone, of course. The shameful neglect of transit priority is common in BC – in fact is arguably worse in this region. There are bits and pieces – mostly grudging. One of the oddest is the new bus lane on (provincial) Highway #99 – which has been almost finished for months, but is still not open. What is that all about?

The unfinished bus lane - my photo

Who might do a “transit review” anyway – and “external” does not mean “independent”. I cannot say that the ones the Colonist cites – of Translink and BC Ferries – inspire confidence. It may indeed be that once again transit governance needs to be revisited. But it is not the structure that causes the problem. It is the political direction of the provincial government – and the strong small c conservative bias of local governments – that results in transit being given short shrift. Because as we have heard so often spending on transit is a subsidy but spending on roads is an investment. And you simply do not see Very Important People like Mayors and Councillors riding the bus.

5 Responses

When I went to Strasbourg in 1995 especially to look at their new tramway (LRT for North Americans) one of the first things I noticed was that the lights changed to green for the tram as it approached..

Several towns in Europe already had for many years–some since the 1970s–all their traffic lights controlled by a computer.
Are Metro Vancouver lights on such a system? I somewhat doubt it as we have 2 sets of lights 1 block apart outside my building and they seldom work together to smooth out the traffic

Controlling traffic lights in favour of public transport is essential for a succesful system. There are more things to do: constructing buslanes (you mentioned it), avoid bus stops with sidings (the bus has to stop on the street and to block the individual traffic) and offering competitiv tariffs for daily users.
Don’t forget to make some parking lots outside of the city center and let the buses (or the LRT) run at least every 5-8 minutes.
A very interesting fact you mentioned is, that many buses in Vancouver are going to the station of “Not in service”. This must be a very important city/town in your neighbourhood… I think, these empty rides can be handeled better.

Speaking of things that are a waste of money…
Putting a northbound bus lane between Steveston and 91 is pointless. The highway is already 3 lanes wide there and its capacity exceeds the capacity of the roads feeding it. The northbound problems at the 17 interchange, Massey Tunnel and Steveston off ramp guarantee the bus lane will never be of any practical value. Richmond asked for an interchange at Blundell to take some of the load off Steveston and got an interchange on 91 instead. The Ministry of Transportation doesn’t have a clue.

Re: “Not in Service”
It makes some operational sense to store buses near the places they’re used, but those considerations are overruled by common sense. It not only costs way too much to obtain urban land to use for bus storage it’s extremely poor land use to have what amounts to a giant parking lot in the middle of the city. As a result buses are stored up to 20 miles from the routes they serve and drivers have to spend a significant portion of their shift getting to and from their service area.

Case in point re: bus storage would be North Vancouver District’s rejection of an expanded North Shore Transit Centre on a new site (due to neighbourhood objections) – so buses that can’t be stored at the existing North Shore facility are stored in Burnaby.

Instagram

Follow Us

Disclaimer, Copyright notice, about and contact information

In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
- George Orwell

All of this blog is my copyright under the Berne Convention. While brief quotations are permitted action will be taken against anyone copying entire posts and presenting them as if they were their own.

Although comments on this blog are moderated, I can take no responsibility for the opinions or remarks made by others. Their continued presence on this blog cannot be taken to indicate my approval of them and they remain the sole responsibility of their authors.

Akismet is catching a huge volume of spam. Unfortunately, it is also catching some real comments. However, it takes a huge amount of work to trawl through literally thousands of spams looking for one or two real comments.
If your comment did not appear, please contact me.
Details on the about page.

Search for:

Categories

Categories

Who am I and what is this

I am a transportation economist and regional planner, displaced from England by the abolition of the Greater London Council and a dislike of Thatcherism. Until March of 2004 I worked for the Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority on wide variety of policy issues. None of these have been solved since I left, and the region has abandoned its long established growth strategy altogether, as the province expanded its major highways and is now proposing another new bridge over the Fraser. I have long advocated more sensible policies to better integrate transport and land use. And this blog is a way to keep up the pressure! It also allows me to vent a bit on related issues.